The Social Marketer

Internet Marketing and Social Media Mentors – Who are You Listening To?

By keith on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010 | No Comments

: Image via Wikipedia

Having a mentor to help you through the often muddy waters of internet marketing and social media has undergone a shift from the way we used to view a traditional mentor/grasshopper model. With instant communication and voluminous content just a click away, it’s easier than ever to grab pearls of wisdom them most.

It is perhaps less prevalent that we have a single mentor anymore. We are more likely to be listening to a pastiche of voices that meet out various needs. However, a single, cohesive voice who you are frequently in contact with is always a good thing, particularly in terms of accountability. If you can develop a relationship like this, it can serve you well over the years.

The next best thing in this day of social interaction is to consort with as many of those whose work you admire and can learn from as you have time for. You can follow them on their social channels, subscribe to their blogs, newsletters or in some cases, their membership sites. You can ask questions, get involved, be of help yourself, and before long, there will be a small circle of people you would feel comfortable asking for help. These may have been people you would never have thought would have given you the time of day before, but you’ll be surprised.

So, since I’m in a sharing mode, some of the people whose business sense, models, wisdom , and genuine helpfulness impress the heck out of me would include Kim Roach, Dave Tropeano, Michael Campbell, Michael Fortin, Chris Brogan, Jack Canfield, and a few others. These folks all have a specific gifts Iwant to learn, and all are great teachers intheir own way. Some I have personal contact with, and others I just read everything they write!

Make sure to include time for this in your day. It’s far too easy to get buried under a mountain of tasks and shelve this part for another time. The thing is, another time never comes! Add their feeds to your RSS reader, subscribe to their newsletter, read their blogs, books and whatever else you can find. The times you spend with those who have something to teach you will enrich your life and in time, your bottom line!

Social Bookmarking Strategy – Stay Out of Jail!

By keith on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 | 4 Comments

If you haven’t considered yet what your social bookmarking strategy is, or what it might be, or even if you need one, then here’s a few things to think about. A good social bookmarking strategy is essential on many levels, not the least of which is that if you do this wrong, you’ll find yourself locked up in the social bookmarking pokey in short order! (Don’t ask me what sites I’m banned from: wait for the T-shirt!)

Even the term “wrong” is relative, because each of the social bookmarking services is a bit different. What is cool at Mister Wong may be taboo at Digg, and vice versa. Certain subjects or topics are not in favor at certain sites, and you find this out the hard way sometimes. Anyhoo, here are a few things we’ve found that are usually not what you might consider a best practice:

Promoting your own content – A big no-no on sites like Digg. Many of lesser elite sites don’t mind so much, but for the most part, you’re much better off letting your friends or network Digg, Stumble or otherwise discover your site.
Multiple accounts – This is a tactic used by people who wear dark color hats! They register many accounts, use proxies, automated posters and other means to “game” the system. This one is against most all TOS of any of these sites.
Duplicate content – Not in the sense you’re probably thinking. What I mean is the use of the same exact wording, headlines and text at every social bookmarking service you use. Mixing it up a little is at the very least a way of testing different headlines, anchor text and keywords. At best, it creates even more unique content with just a small tweak.
Frequency – Social bookmarking every single solitary post you make is not only not necessary, but can be looked upon askance. Bookmark your best stuff. What I like to do is rotate where I bookmark, kind of spreading the wealth, so to speak.
IP addresses – If you do a lot of bookmarking for clients or friends, be aware that most of the bigger services, like Digg, monitor your IP adddress, and will come down hard on you of they suspect you’re trying to spam the system. Remember, moderation, and not your own stuff!
Social Bookmarking AutoPosters – These software tools are an accident waiting to happen to your rankings. A bunch of bookmarks with the same text, timestamp, and IP address all pointing to your site? Hmmmm….
Google Slap Rumors – There are rumors rampant that Google may come down with one of it’s infamous “slaps” soon, this time targeting all the spam associated with social bookmarking sites. We shall see…

Those should give you plenty to obsess about over the next few days! Seriously though, a sane, well thought-out social bookmarking strategy can be implemented and should be. Just make sure you’re doing your level best to use the services the way they were intended to be used. The real winners when this all shakes out will be the people who’ve taken the time to create a following that will naturally bookmark and otherwise vote for their posts. This after all is the essence of the social web.

~Keith

Social Media Marketing Strategy – How To Choose?

By keith on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 | 6 Comments

Choosing the specific web properties you’d like to implement for your social media marketing strategy can be a confusing and time-munching matter. There are literally thousands of Web 2.0 sites out there, each purporting to be exactly what you need. So, as I said in a previous post, you need to be really clear about what it is exactly you’re after. Then you have a basis for choosing dance partners!

First, you need to be pretty plugged in if you’re doing this yourself. many times people come to social marketing thinking they’ll just get themselves a Facebook or MySpace account and everyone will simply rush right over after they see they’re there. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Just the fact you’re reading this is a great start, and there are many more voices that can shed light on the ever-changing landscape of social media. For me, I start my day by logging into my Google Reader and checking out the feeds of the various sources I listen to, and I have subscribed to a few! (You want to limit this to whatever number doesn’t keep you glued there all day!)

Now that you have an ongoing education in what’s hot and what’s not, you can begin to choose. Remember not only your goals and objectives, but what exactly will be the return for that investment? You can spend months building up thousands of friends and followers on some of the social networking sites, but if your goal is search engine traffic then you need to know that Google and others don’t give link credit from sites like Facebook, MySpace and others. So what is their value then? Their value lies in getting people excited enough about you that they’ll click through your profile to your website, where the fun can begin! And yes, you can gently massage them in that direction!

If your goals lie more in the direction of search engine rankings and traffic, you’ll be examining sites with a whole different set of eyes. You want sites that give live, followed links, that are very social, and that are getting lots of attention from the search powers that be. (Namely Google) These sites come and go all the time, but there are some that have lasted a while and are proving their worth to those who know how to use them, such as StumbleUpon, Digg, Tumblr and others.

There’s a lot to consider when choosing sites for your social media marketing arsenal; make sure you come to the table armed with all the knowledge you can!

Next time we’ll talk about the methods you use, and what you need to have done for you.

~Keith

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